Highlights: April 2025

I think that for many people, once April hits they would be able to say that they are sinking fully into Spring. Well, we’ve had two snow storms already here in Minnesota. But we also have some decidedly Spring-y things coming up, including the usual Spring holidays (Easter for Serena with chocolate bunnies, Passover for Kate with a harried planning of a big Seder), and slowly greener neighborhoods. We also have some books we can’t wait to read!

Serena’s Picks

Book: “A Drop of Corruption” by Robert Jackson Bennett

Publication Date: April 1, 2025

Why I’m Interested: Not only have I loved all the books I’ve read by this author before, but I absolutely adored the first book in this series, with its perfect balance of mystery, fantasy, and even a healthy dose of horror! Plus, the core duo is made up of a wholly unique version of the Holmes and Watson dynamic! The story picks up a bit after the last one, with Ana and Din assigned to a case on the very outskirts of the Empire. There they find mysterious experiments, a delicate political situation, and, of course, the titular drop of corruption, both literal and philosophical! Can’t wait to see what this one has in store!

Book: “The Rave Scholar”

Publication Date: April 15, 2025

Why I’m Interested: This is the exact sort of new high fantasy book that would immediately draw my attention. Yes, there is the well-trodden ground of a magical competition at its heart, but that’s never enough to fully put me off, especially when the book description features such a unique narrative voice: that of a Raven god himself! Beyond that, I’ve seen a lot of early hype for this one. Now, if the past is any guide, that means I’ll either love this one or absolutely hate it! Crossing my fingers for the former.

Book: “The Ashfire King” by Chelsea Abdullah

Publication Date: April 15, 2025

Why I’m Interested: I could only give you the barest talking points about what happened in the first book in this series. Not only was it a fairly complex fantasy world, but it’s been a few years now since the first book was released. That said, I do remember really liking it, so I’m excited to finally get the second entry in the series. I also really like the cover on this one and am super curious about the bird especially. I don’t remember anything about that in the first book, so we’ll see what this one gets up to!

Kate’s Picks

Book: “The Staircase in the Woods” by Chuck Wendig

Publication Date: April 29, 2025

Why I’m Interested: I really love Chuck Wendig’s horror stories, as they are usually guaranteed to not only disturb, but to also bring big emotions. Last time the big emotional gut punches involved fathers and daughters, and it looks like this time it’s going to be old friends. “The Staircase in the Woods” follows four friends who have drifted apart over the decades after their fifth disappeared… after climbing up a mysterious staircase in the woods they were exploring, only for both him and the steps to disappear. Now they are back together, grudgingly, to try and solve what happened. And if Wendig is involved, it’s going to go poorly for them. I’ve always loved the urban legend of mysterious steps in wooded areas, so I can’t wait to see what he’s doing with it.

Book: “Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng” by Kylie Lee Baker

Publication Date: April 29, 2025

Why I’m Interested: This sounds like it could be combining not only a supernatural horror story, but also a disturbing mystery involving the targeting of Asian American women due to racism and misogyny, all investigated by a determined crime scene cleaner dealing with her own loss and trauma. Cora cleans up crime scenes for a living. She sees the aftermath of terrible violence every day on the job, but it can’t compare to the violence she saw when someone murdered her sister in front of her. As more women in Chinatown are being murdered, and Cora wants to solve the mystery, she has a harder and harder time ignoring a presence that has been haunting her recently. One that is a bit otherworldly. This one sounds so intriguing and will probably also have lots of emotional oomph.

Book: “Julie Chan is Dead” by Liann Zhang

Publication Date: April 29, 2025

Why I’m Interested: This one has had a fair bit of buzz in book circles that I follow, and the plot sounds twisty and soapy. So clearly I’m all about that. Julie is a working class supermarket worker who is struggling to make ends meet. She has an identical twin sister named Chloe, who is a successful social media influencer, and with whom she has barely had a relationship in many years of their lives. But when Julie finds Chloe dead, she decides to take over her identity and to live the glamorous and high end life of an influencer. But keeping up appearances may not be so easy. Especially since Chloe was actually a target for something sinister. Give it to me NOW.

Serena’s Review: “Chaos King”

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Book: “Chaos King” by Kacen Callender

Publishing Info: Tor Teen, April 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Ever since he rose up against his father and saved New Anglia from destruction, Ash has been struggling to adapt to his new life. He has nightmares every night, haunted by strange black orbs and his screaming dead mother. Ash is sure she’s trying to warn him that the world is still in danger, and becomes determined to find a way to speak to her again―but communicating with the dead isn’t easy, even for an alchemist as powerful as Ash.

Previously Reviewed: “Infinity Alchemist”

Review: I didn’t love the first book in this series, but many of its problems also may have came down to all the elements a first book must tackle. Given more familiarity with the characters in this second go-around, I was interested to see where the story would go from there!

I will say, I did like this one better than the first. For one thing, I think the pacing was more balanced here. This makes sense, as it didn’t have to do nearly has much heavy lifting with regards to introducing the basic structures of this society and magic system. That being the case, the story had more free rein to dive straight into the main plot and several intense action sequences. This same benefit extended to the characters. While I still don’t love multiple love interests, the longer I’ve spent with all three of these people, the more I came to care about their various travails.

However, I still found myself struggling with the swapping pronouns for one of the characters. Inclusivity is important, but there are practical realities of reading a story via the written word that does create barriers to how this sort of character is presented. As it stands, swapping pronouns often throughout the story left me struggling to piece together who was saying/doing what. And this markedly detracted from my ability to stay connected to the plot, as I had to constantly come out of the story to piece together sentences and scour previous bits for context clues. Like I said in my original review, I’m not sure what the solution is here, but I think in light of the very real limitations of the written word, simply sticking with “they” as a pronoun would have greatly improved the writing in this book.

I did enjoy the themes explored here. This society has very real boundaries placed on its people, and we see the struggles our characters go through. Beyond that, we have the exploration of themes regarding religion and magic, and the lengths people are pushed to in their devotion to their beliefs. Revolution stories are always a good time in fantasy!

That said, the book has an odd ending. I thought this was a duology when I picked this one up, but the end definitely leaves the door open for more, with several questions left unanswered. Ultimately, I think if you enjoyed the first book, this one will definitely hold up as a good sequel. Even for those who didn’t love the first book, this was definitely an improvement!

Rating 7: While it’s an improvement on the previous book, I still struggled with the readability at times, and the ending had me scratching me head a bit.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Chaos King” can be found on this Goodreads list: 2025 Dark Academia Releases.

Ripley’s Reviews: “The American Friend (Der amerikanische Freund)” (1977)

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“Ripley’s Reviews” is an ongoing series where I will review every book in Patricia Highsmith’s “Ripley” Series, as well as multiple screen adaptations of the novels. I will post my reviews on the first Thursday of the month, and delve into the twisted mind of one Tom Ripley and all the various interpretations that he has come to life within. Up next is the third film adaptation of a “Ripley” book I’m covering, the 1977 film “The American Friend”.

Film: “The American Friend (Der amerikanische Freund” (1977)

When I started this series of reviewing books and films about Tom Ripley, I didn’t realize that there were so many adaptations of the various books. I had clearly heard of the Matt Damon film and the “Ripley” series on Netflix (look for that in the future), but goodness! There are quite a few more! And NEVER in a MILLION years would I have ever thought that Dennis Hopper would be playing Tom Ripley. Dennis Hopper!?!? My main associations with Hopper as an actor are as follows: “Apocalypse Now!”, “Speed”, and “Blue Velvet”. He’s fantastic and nails all of these roles, but reserved they are NOT. And Tom Ripley is a cold, calculating, patient, and restrained character. I am not sure if Hopper has ever played restrained (let me know if I’m wrong!). But in “The American Friend”, he is Tom Ripley, and he’s…. KIND OF restrained. And interestingly enough, it does, indeed, work.

“The American Friend” is mostly an adaptation of “Ripley’s Game”, in which Ripley manipulates a working class picture framer to do his dirty work of carrying out a couple hits against some mafia figures, which Ripley didn’t want to do himself. It also takes the plot of “Ripley Under Ground” of the art forgeries and inserts them into this film, so it’s KIND of an adaptation of that as well, though it’s more for context I’d say. As an adaptation of “Ripley’s Game” it follows the plot mostly closely, though Ripley himself is a bit of a departure. And it probably is because Hopper is playing him. Instead of a put together and subtle posh fella living a luxurious quiet life, THIS Ripley feels like he could lose control at any minute, making him menacing in a different way. Yes, he does have a lot more calmly sinister moments, but it’s Dennis Hopper, and the more implied fiery villainy is a departure, but not in a bad way. I’m admittedly probably going to like Hopper in most anything I see him in, so I could be biased. But I thought that his Ripley was interesting and refreshing. And I really enjoyed the chemistry he had with Bruno Ganz, who plays manipulated picture framer Johnathan Zimmerman (they changed his name in this from Trevanny; not sure if it’s because this character is German instead of British, but it doesn’t really affect anything). This kind of feels like a buddy comedy in some ways as these two play off each other, since in this Ripley genuinely feels shame about his actions. Well, as much as he CAN, given that he’s still monstrous. He just feels a bit bad about it. He’s not the Ripley I’ve come to expect, but I still thought it was a fun interpretation. Cowboy hat and all (book Ripley would NEVER).

Speaking of Ganz, if I felt back for Johnathan in the book, I REALLY felt bad for him in the film. I think that that’s in part because he is just so worried about his wife and son, believing that he is dying of his until now stable blood disease (and like in the book, no, Ripley tricked him with a fake doctor and diagnosis) and that they will be penniless should he die. I am wholly unfamiliar with Ganz as an actor, as I have not seen much German cinema, but man he just broke my heart. You just feel his anxiety and desperation when he interacts with his family. I felt the same disgust for Ripley and his stupid mean plan as I did when I was reading the book. Ganz nailed it. And like I said above, the chemistry between him and Hopper was unexpected and sometimes, dare I say, kind of sweet?

As a thriller this is very well done, it’s intense and unrelenting. The tension is palpable and there are some scenes that truly had me at the edge of my seat, and the cinematography had some really great bits (I’m thinking of a particular scene where we are seeing Zimmerman flee and we are tracking him through his movements via the security camera footage). I also really loved a chase scene on a beach. Wim Wenders directed this and he had a very clear vision that translated well on the screen, with intensity and grittiness to spare.

So at this point in adaptations, I would say that Damon’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley” is still the best, followed by “The American Friend”, and then “Purple Moon”. But they’ve all been really enjoyable! Perhaps it should be no surprise that Tom Ripley is a character that translates well to the screen. Up next I am going to watch “Ripley Under Ground”, with Barry Pepper as Tom Ripley!

Serena’s Review: “This Monster of Mine”

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Book: “This Monster of Mine” by Shalini Abeysekara

Publishing Info: Union Square & Co., April 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Eighteen-year-old Sarai doesn’t know why someone tried to kill her four years ago, but she does know that her case was closed without justice. Hellbent on vengeance, she returns to the scene of the crime as a Petitor, a prosecutor who can magically detect lies, and is assigned to work with Tetrarch Kadra. Ice-cold and perennially sadistic, Kadra is the most vicious of the four judges who rule the land – and the prime suspect in a string of deaths identical to Sarai’s attempted murder.

Certain of his guilt, Sarai begins a double life: solving cases with Kadra by day and plotting his ruin by night. But Kadra is charming and there’s something alluring about the wrath he wields against the city’s corruption. So when the evidence she finds embroils her in a deadly political battle, Sarai must also fight against her attraction to Kadra – because despite his growing hold on her heart, his voice matches the only memory she has of her assailant…

Review: This is going to be a very strange review to write, mostly because it was a very strange book to read. I’m honestly having a hard time thinking of a book that was more of a roller coaster ride than this one. One minute I’m loving it, whipping through action scenes, swooning over the love interest. The next, I’m irate, considering DNFing, franticly scanning other reviews to see if I’m way off base or totally missing something.

Beyond the whiplash that this experience created, I was also off balance due to the fact that my usual points of interest/concern were reversed. I’m a character reader first and foremost, and more often than not, if I get through a book I’m otherwise struggling with, it comes down to the strength of the characters or the narrative voice. Here, however, the characters (more, the main character) was the problem, but the writing itself was so good that it carried me through the real deep troughs I experienced otherwise. The author simply has an excellent style and voice! The world-building was perfectly crafted, the dialogue all felt believable, hitting all of the right notes in its humorous, serious, or romantic moments. And the exploration of its themes regarding law and justice were *chefs kiss.*

And, again, when I wasn’t getting bogged down in the main character, I really enjoyed the romance! The story is a true slow burn, and while the romance is important to the story, it doesn’t overshadow the other serious aspects of the story, such as the aforementioned themes regarding justice or the mystery behind what happened to Sarai. And, for his part, Kadra was an excellent romantic interest in his own right! Strong, but compassionate. Filled with purpose, but also focused on Sarai as she works through her trauma. And, honestly, a hell of a lot more patient with her more ridiculous moments that I ever would have been.

And then, there’s Sarai. Now, if she had simply been an unlikable heroine through and through, we probably wouldn’t be here, good writing bedamned. No, instead, she has a lot of strengths as a narrator! I enjoyed most of her inner voice, and her motivations and magical abilities were all very interesting. The problem, however, came down to her approach to discovering the truth behind the attempt on her life. To get into my feelings with this, I’m going to have to go into some spoilers of actions in the first half of the book. For those who want spoiler free, I’ll just say she makes wild leaps of logic throughout that make zero sense. The rest of this review, however, will be a bit more in-depth with my problems here.

SPOILERS BELOW!

So, a little backstory: years ago, someone attempted to kill Sarai. The nature of the crime left her body and mind broken, with all but the barest fragments of memory of the event wiped from her mind. All she does remember is a specific voice, one that instructs another person to patch her up and get her out of the city, granted in a rough and tough tone of voice. In the years since, there has been a suicide spree, with many individuals with magical abilities like Sarai seeming to kill themselves in odd ways. Years later, she returns to try to discover what happened and who tried to kill her. Almost immediately, she recognizes the voice from her memories as Kadra.

Now, as readers, we know that Kadra can’t have been the attempted murderer, simply because we know we’re reading a romantic fantasy novel and he’s the romantic interest. Sarai couldn’t (and shouldn’t!) think this way, too. However, from the memories she does have, even she admits early in the book that whomever the voice belonged to was responsible for patching her up and could have very well been there for other reasons than being the person behind the attempt on her life. I read a paragraph from her saying just this and I thought, “Great, phew! We got the obvious bit out of the way right from the start and reinforced the idea that the true mystery here is why Kadra was there, why he helped her, and why he banished her out of the city.”

Unfortunately, no. In the very next chapter, Sarai is full-on convinced that Kadra must have been the one to try to kill her (somehow immediately forgetting/disregarding the fact that he then, inexplicably, saved her?? Why he wouldn’t have just finished her off for good is simply…never mentioned or thought of). What’s worse, Sarai begins to suspect that Kadra must also be behind the deaths of the others like her, those who have been supposedly committing suicide.

Early in their time working together, Kadra and Sarai go to the morgue to look over the body of the most recent “suicide victim.” While there, Sarai witnesses Kadra fighting with the coroner over the manner of death, insisting that it couldn’t be a suicide (something that Sarai agrees with, after viewing the body). The coroner, on the other hand, is sure it’s a suicide and has ruled it as such. What’s more, she’s sick of Kadra coming by FIVE OR SIX TIMES before this over the last few months to argue this very point! Sarai, internally, goes on to think this: “Aha! Kadra must be behind this! He’s perfectly positioned himself to cover up his crimes by being the investigator behind them!!”

Girl, what?? No one thought this guy was murdered EXCEPT Kadra! If it wasn’t for him, this guy would have been buried and listed as a suicide months ago! And yet somehow, Sarai, dumb dumb that she is, has decided that it’s totally reasonable and smart that a murderer would stage an elaborate scene to make a crime look like a suicide, and then, after completely getting away with it, spend the next few months arguing with a coroner, insisting that it was, in fact, a murder! It honestly boggled my mind.

Next, a few days later, Kadra decides that he and Sarai should go inform the family that this guy didn’t commit suicide but was killed and that they’re looking into it. Sarai, SUPREME DUMB DUMB that she is, thinks to herself this: “Great! Maybe while I’m there I can uncover proof that Kadra was behind it!!”

Girl, WHAT?!?! You think that Kadra murdered this guy, set up an elaborate staged suicide, called that very same staging into question, and is now going to take a woman with incredible magical abilities back to the home of the victim where he just so happened to leave around evidence that explicitly condemns him?? What is he getting out of this?? How is this helping him and not, as any normal person would think, clearly revealing him to be the only person most likely to have NOT killed these people. And again, throughout this, Sarai never deals with the fact that her theory of Kadra as the man behind her own murder attempt is completely blown out of the water by the simple fact that he WAS THE ONE TO SAVE HER!

The face-palming throughout all of this was frankly appalling. I won’t go into more details, but these flaws in thinking and ridiculous theorizing continued on well over the halfway mark in the book. Later, there are even more “revelations” that Sarai takes as confirmation of Kadra’s guilt, all of which are equally as stupid as the two examples I listed above. Even writing about it now, I’m getting mad about it all again.

What’s worse, as I said, so much about this book was clicking so well for me! The writing was so strong, the story-telling was good, Kadra was excellent! All the right pieces were there. But somehow, it feels like the author went astray with Sarai herself, as if she knew she wanted to create this suspicion between Sarai and Kadra, but couldn’t quite manage to make it actually work. So, instead, Sarai is just an idiot who thinks completely illogical things, just to maintain the mystery element behind Kadra and his involvement.

All of this said, I’ll definitely check out another book by this author. I think she’s got great potential, and with a few tweaks, I could have loved this book! Unfortunately, I couldn’t get past Sarai herself; I can’t remember the last time I read a book where a main character was this flawed in their reasoning for so long. However, other readers may be less bothered with it, particularly if characters are less important for you. The vibes of the story and the romance itself were very good!

Rating 7: I’d give this a 6 just for Sarai herself. But the actual writing and world-building deserves enough praise to bump it up to a 7.

Reader’s Advisory:

“This Monster of Mine” can be found on this Goodreads list: 2025 Debut Novels.

Kate’s Review: “Strange New Moons”

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Book: “Strange New Moons” by Stephen Kozeniewski (Ed.) & Kayleigh Dobbs (Ed.)

Publishing Info: French Press Publishing, January 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from the publisher.

Where You Can Get This Book: Amazon

Book Description: You can hardly swing a dismembered deer carcass these days without hitting a “No vampires, no zombies, and no werewolves” sign on an anthology.

Well, to that we say “Pshaw!” And also, “Awooo!”

Because what readers really don’t like are dull werewolf stories. So, we tasked the horror community with writing the weirdest, wildest, most creative, utterly bonkers tails (ha!) of lycanthropic lunacy possible.

– a brutal, boneshattering peek at the kind of “dogfights” the super-wealthy watch to amuse themselves

– a story of two inquisitive city employees trying to find out who (or what!) keeps pooping on a local landmark

– a ride along with a delusional cop trying to prevent the total werewolf apocalypse. Werepocalypse!

Plus werewolf Frankenstein! And werewolves in space! This book is all gore and no bore. With a lineup running the gamut from brand, spanking new cubs to heavyweight timber alphas, you’d have to be the weakest elk in the herd not to slobber all over…

Review: Thank you to French Press Publishing for sending me an eARC of this novel!

I’m still a little bit shocked that werewolves haven’t had a huge horror moment lately the way that vampires and zombies have. And I fully admit that I am kind of a part of that lack of werewolf moment, as I’ve never really been huge into that sub-genre of horror (though lately I’ve enjoyed books like “Such Sharp Teeth” by Rachel Harrison, and “Bride” by Ali Hazelwood, which do have werewolves and some horror elements). Hell, I didn’t even get my butt to the movie theater to see the new “Wolf Man” even though it looked pretty decent. So when I was offered the anthology “Strange New Moons”, edited by authors Kayleigh Dobbs and Stephen Kozeniewski, I was game. Bring on the lycanthropes, I said!

Like most other short story collections, I am going to showcase my favorite three stories, and then review the collection as a whole.

“Vargsången” by Mary SanGiovanni: This was the first story in the collection, and it made it so that it started with a serious bang. A woman in an isolated cabin knows that there is some kind of predator outside her door on a snowy night. She wants to keep her sleeping children safe, but doesn’t know if she should confront the beast, or just hope that it goes away. I love the Scandinavian setting and mythology choices, and thought that it was suspenseful and relatable as a mother has to decide if she should risk drawing attention to a predator outside the door. This may have been my favorite story in the collection, as a matter of fact!

“That Time of the Month” by Kayleigh Dobbs: I’ve read Kayleigh Dobbs before and have always enjoyed her stories, and this one was one of the more humorous contributions to the collection, with a wry commentary to go with the lycanthropy. Every month in a community the men lock themselves up, tucked away from the full moon lest they find themselves in a dangerous situation. But one hapless husband has found himself out on the streets on the night that he is supposed to be safely tucked away… Dobbs sets up one scenario based on what we’ve expected from werewolf tropes in past stories, but subverts it in a clever and often quite humorous way. I found myself cackling a fair amount as I read this story. Horror humor done right!

“It’s All For The Best, Sweetie” by Rose Strickman: I’m a true sucker for any kind of fairy tale retelling, especially if it’s a bit dark, so “It’s All For The Best, Sweetie” was the other story that really stood out to me. Through letters from a grandmother to a granddaughter, we find the story of a woman who has trapped her granddaughter in her home, believing her to be a dangerous animal at heart. The epistolary format was really great, and it made for a very unreliable grandmother narrator as she writes her letters to Roja, becoming more unhinged by the minute. Or is it just clarity? Such a creepy and twisted “Red Riding Hood” reimagining.

As a collection I thought that it had a lot of variety across sub-genres, which is always nice to see, with a nice mix of traditionally scary, to surrealistic, to tongue in cheek humorous. The only author I had read in this group (at least I’m fairly certain of) is Kayleigh Dobbs, and I truly enjoyed reading so many of the works in this collection from authors I was unfamiliar with. And any stories that didn’t work as well for me were more due to the sub-genres themselves (like leaning more heavily Sci-Fi, for example), and that is more a reflection on my tastes as I could see fans of said sub-genres being very happy with what they find.

So overall I’m pleased that I read “Strange New Moons”. It’s always nice to see more werewolf fiction since it hasn’t had it’s moment in the moon as much as other monster horror has, and if you do like werewolves this collection will surely satisfy!

Rating 8: A fun and varied collection of werewolf stories crossing tone and genre!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Strange New Moons” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but would fit in on “Werewolf Books”.

Not Just Books: March 2025

While we do love us some books, believe it not, we do have a life outside of reading. So to highlight our other pop culture interests, on the last Monday of each month, we each will highlight three other “happenings” from the last month. Big events on favorite TV shows, new movies we’ve watched, old movies we’ve “discovered,” etc. Pretty much whatever we found of particular interest outside of the book world during the last month. Share your own favorite things in the comments!

Serena’s Picks

Movie: “Conclave”

I ended up watching this one mostly for the cast, as it’s jam packed with talent. I was also intrigued by the concept itself, which follows the intrigues uncovered during a conclave as the Cardinals of the Catholic Church work to elect a new Pope. And it really delivered on most of it! I will say, I think Ralph Fiennes really carries this thing, as much of the story lives and dies around the viewers’ investment in him and his motivations. There were a bunch of great twists and turns throughout, as well. Though I will say that final twist felt a bit like it was there for shock value, but failed to deliver any actual point along with the reveal. I just wanted a bit more there. But overall, it was still a great watch!

TV Show: “Severance” Season 2

We usually highlight movies/shows/games that we enjoyed on this list. However, there’s no rule that it has to be positive! And, boy, was this not a positive experience! And look, I enjoyed the first season of this show. Sure, it was a bit pretentious at times, but the cast was likable and the concept super interesting. But man, this second season was a mess. Rev up the pretentiousness to the maximum level, reduce the amount of time focused on the core cast and instead devote entire episodes to side characters we don’t care about, and then, worst of all, spend you entire last episode with characters working their way through difficult choices only to completely undercut all of it (including characterization that goes back to the first season!!) in the last five minutes of the episode. Truly, this was a hot mess. It was badly in need of editors to rein it back in, and I now have almost zero faith that there is any true foundation or plan at the heart of this story. Sure, I’ll watch the third season. But my expectations of a satisfying conclusion are now near rock bottom.

Game: “Baldur’s Gate” – Achievement Unlocked!

So, this is both a brag and also a confession. On the bragging side, I’m super proud of myself to have finally completed my Honor Mode run of BG3. (For those who don’t know, this is the max difficulty where you only have one save file for the entire game. So if you die, that’s it. Game over. Hours wasted. Start over.) I think somewhere like 2% of players get this achievement, but that’s probably because they aren’t crazy people like me. Since then the confession, of course, is that I’ve been devoting an unhealthy amount of time to playing this game over and over. I think I’ve done four full play throughs now, including the Honor Mode one, and a few that I got halfway through before abandoning (mostly because I wasn’t enjoying my main character). It’s truly an unhealthy obsession. And now that I’ve finally checked off the hardest achievement in the game, I’ve dove straight into the world of mods and, yep, here we go again!

Kate’s Picks

TV Show: “The White Lotus”

Hooray, my soapy murder mystery satire show is back! After a so so first season and a great second season (at least in my opinion), the third season of “The White Lotus” is finally here and we are still following shallow and horrible wealthy people and slimy and shady ne’er-do-wells at yet another White Lotus resort, this time in Thailand! This is one of the shows my husband and I both enjoy watching as a couple, and thus far we are both enjoying the season. I’m especially enjoying Parker Posey as a constantly drugged up wealthy wife to an unraveling businessman played by Jason Isaacs, as her one liners are iconic. Though honestly my favorite is Walton Goggins’s Rick. Because oh man Walton Goggins is VERY much my cup of tea. I’m curious to see how it all pulls together by the end, and who dies as one always must on this show (please not Walton Goggins!).

TV Show: “Dark Winds”

Hooray, one of my favorite procedurals is back! I absolutely adore “Dark Winds” and the characters of Leaphorn and Chee, and they are on a new case on the Navajo Reservation, six months after the end of season 2. We find Leaphorn still a part of the Tribal Police, with Chee now back on the squad after being a PI last season, and Bernadette trying to adjust to her new border patrol job. While Leaphorn and Chee are dealing with two missing boys, Bernadette is convinced that she has found evidence of human trafficking, though her boss doesn’t really give a shit one way or the other. And there may be something supernatural afoot this time around. Zahn McClarnon is still a stellar Leaphorn, and seeing his emotional distress this season after what happened LAST season AND a missing child case (making him think of his own dead son) is a gut punch, and he’s killing it. Can’t wait to see where this goes.

TV Show: “Interview with the Vampire”

It took me a long time to finally sit down and watch season 2 of this show, and it’s not because I disliked season 1. On the contrary, I loved it. I think the reason I waited was because I knew what was coming. I was excited for some things; Théâtre de Vampires! More Armand and maybe some queer subtext with Daniel (or in this case, supertext?)! But I also knew that it meant that Claudia’s arc was going to hit, and hit hard. All that said, when I finally did sit down and watch it, I was enthralled and devoured it. I loved seeing Armand’s theater coven, I loved seeing Daniel peel back secrets between Louis and Armand, and I LOVED seeing Lestat come back. Because we knew he would. And yes, it had its emotional gut punch moments that left me sobbing. And hints to what is to come (hellooooo, Talamasca!). I really, really enjoyed Season 2 even though it was devastating in some ways. Bring on Season 3. Especially since it’s going to cover “The Vampire Lestat”.

Kate’s Review: “You Must Take Part in Revolution”

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Book: “You Must Take Part in Revolution: A Graphic Novel” by Melissa Chan & Badiucao (Ill.)

Publishing Info: Street Noise Books, March 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from the publisher.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: From acclaimed journalist Melissa Chan and esteemed activist artist Badiucao comes a near-future graphic novel dystopia that explores technology, authoritarian government, and the lengths that one will go to in the fight for freedom.

Three idealistic youths, forever transformed by the real-world protests in Hong Kong in 2019, develop diverging beliefs about how to best fight against techno-authoritarian China. As conflict escalates and a nuclear disaster looms, is working with an increasingly fascist and non-democratic United States the answer? Andy, Maggie, and Olivia travel different paths toward transformative change, each confronting to what extent they will fight for freedom, and who they will become in doing so.

A powerful and important book about global totalitarian futures, and the costs of resistance.

Review: Thank you to Street Noise Books for sending me an eARC of this graphic novel!

When I was an undergrad at the U of MN, I had my first library job working in the Annex at Wilson Library. My duties included shelving books all throughout the library, as well as working the desk to pull materials like old journals, microfiche, and newspapers. One of my friends at the time was my coworker Hugo, who was an exchange student from Hong Kong. A few years after graduation he moved back home and we lost touch, but in the summer of 2020 he reached out during the George Floyd protests/the uprising to see how I was doing since he knew I was still living in the area. We chatted a bit, and he told me that he had been a part of the protests in Hong Kong in 2019, and gave some tips to pass on to others who were out protesting. It was interesting hearing him talk about all of that, as I certainly heard about it peripherally, but hearing about it first hand was jarring. I kept thinking about Hugo as I read Melissa Chan’s new graphic novel “You Must Take Part In Revolution”, as it has a start in 2019 Hong Kong, and then delves into a not so distant possible future where autocracy is rising across the world. So….. relevant reading to say the very least.

The first thing you need to know about this book is that it is GRIM. That isn’t meant to be a negative critique, because I think that any book talking about a totalitarian world needs to be grim on some level, and Chan feels no need to hold anything back in this possible future as China has cemented itself as an autocratic world power and a fascist United States starts to push against them in a bid for its own power. We follow three characters, all of whom bonded and became friends during the 2019 Hong Kong protests. We have Andy, who has been trying to keep his head down but has been helping resistance against the CCP in his own ways and finds himself recruited to a rebel paramilitary group . We have Maggie, who went to prison in 2019 for her part in a violent protest tactic that had severe consequences. And we have Olivia, who has some dark secrets that she is hiding after dropping off radar after the protests. One of the greatest strengths of this story is that all of these characters are well drawn out and have many layers, and while the reader could certainly have opinions and feelings about the actions they take, Chan is careful to not label any of them as doing something right or wrong, but all trying to survive in a world that is filled with horrors and complexities.

Both Chan and illustrator Badiucao have backgrounds that can lend first hand to the story being told, as Chan is a journalist and Badiucao is an activist, and their critiques of the autocratic and oppressive CCP are blistering, but they don’t stop there as the United States in this book is ALSO rather villainous. As both countries start to set their sights on Taiwan, and the fallout from that unwinds as the years pass, we see a very scary possibility that our own world could be headed in such a direction. I was chilled to the bone reading this book, and I feel like it is a must read for anyone who may be terrified about the state of things, and who are wanting to find their place in not only a new reality, but also within an urge to resist. That said, let’s go back to the grimness mentioned above. This book makes it VERY clear that there is a stark cost for anyone who wants to fight back. That isn’t to say it’s a condemnation of fighting back, because it is not at all. Chan and Badiucao are very clear that resistance against such things is necessary. But it also has no room for romanticism of revolution against a world of surveillance, greed, and corruption, and the pain and consequences are laid out in full honesty.

And finally the artwork. I was fully unfamiliar with Badiucao before reading this, though apparently he is known as Australia’s answer to Banksy. I really, REALLY liked his art style, as the visuals and unique and jarring and sharp in all the right ways for the story at hand. It brings in glimmers of humanity against a backdrop of oppression and despair.

(source: Street Noise Books)

It’s hard to stomach at times, but “You Must Participate In Revolution” is absolutely necessary reading for the times we are living in. I hope that we heed its warnings.

Rating 9: A stark warning for a possible dark future, “You Must Participate In Revolution” is a call for resistance to authoritarianism. Incredibly relevant reading.

Reader’s Advisory:

“You Must Take Part In Revolution” is included on the Goodreads list “Great Graphic Novels (Released In) 2025”.

Serena’s Review: “Faithbreaker”

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Book: “Faithbreaker” by Hannah Kaner

Publishing Info: HarperVoyager, April 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: Edelweiss+

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: War has come. The fire god Hseth is leading an unstoppable army south, consuming everything in her path. Middren’s only hope of survival is to unify allies and old foes against a common enemy.

Elo navigates an uneasy alliance with Arren; his friend, his enemy, and his king. Now they each must decide how much they’re willing to sacrifice to turn the tides of war.

Meanwhile, Inara joins her mother on their ship, the Silverswift, to seek aid. Still grappling with her powers, Inara must reconcile who she is and where she belongs, while Skediceth has to question if their bond will be enough to keep them safe.

Kissen has no allegiance to the old ways of Middren. But, as she tries to find her family, she is forced to question what, and whose, future she is fighting for.

Previously Reviewed: “Godkiller” and “Sunbringer”

Review: I’ll be honest, I’ve put off writing this review for a bit. On reflection, this trilogy has been a challenging experience. Mostly because the first book hit it out of the park for me, and now each subsequent book has been a step further and further away from that high. While this book does stick the landing of the overall plot itself, it wasn’t enough to temper my disappointment with various other aspects of the story.

But let’s start with the good. Like the two books before it, this one capitalizes on the intricate world-building that has been created over the course of the trilogy. There’s been excellent exploration of themes regarding religion, devotion, and the extremes to which individuals can be driven to under the influence of strong ideologies. This one continued in these veins. And, like I said, while it takes a while to get everything and everyone in place, the final confrontation and climax of the trilogy hits well.

The pacing is also fairly slow throughout. But this is true for the first two books as well, so readers should essentially expect a similar reading experience to those stories. Personally, I think the slower pacing works for the sort of story being drawn here. Never does this series claim to be an action-packed romp. But instead, it’s very character-based, and, as such, spends a lot of time in various characters’ heads exploring their personal arcs.

Now, unfortunately, we get to my complaints. First off, from the start I’ve mentioned that delicate balance that has been struck between the shared POVs. In the first book, all three POV characters were strong enough to make this approach work well. And, as they all spent the majority of their time together, these different POVs didn’t take us away from the two other characters, allowing the reader to still spend time with them all. In the second book, one of my complaints had to do with the lessening impact of these various POVs. Inara remained mostly the same, but Elo’s story took a massive dip, with much of his subplot feeling tacked on. And, in a strange turn, the excellence of Kissen’s chapters only served to further undermine the story, as it began to feel as if any chapters focused on the other two dragged even more than they should have in comparison.

Well, here, where I had so many hopes now that our main trio were finally reunited, this problem has only been expanded upon. Not only do they get immediately broken up into various groups again and sent off in different directions, but the story added in TWO more POVs. And, honestly, I couldn’t have cared less about Arren or Hestra! Not only did these chapters feel as if they were taking up precious page space from the characters I actually cared about, but in Arren’s case, the entire project behind him was DOA.

I get that the author thought that this added POV for him was necessary to attempt to make him a sympathetic character, but frankly, it was too little too late. I couldn’t simply sweep under the rug all of the actions I’d seen from this character in the first two books. Perhaps if these chapters were attempting to simply lighten opinions on him some, it would have worked. But to attempt to re-create him as a romantic interest for Elo? NO THANK YOU! I was so upset by this switch. Not only did it feel like the excellent dynamic that was created between Elo and Kissen was swept under the rug for no apparent reason (and frankly, this is the kind of stuff that just makes me furious because it makes me feel as if the author set me up for disappointment from the start), but Elo’s entire story has played out in him coming to realize what he deserves and what he doesn’t. What he absolutely doesn’t deserve is to end up with a character like Arren, who treated him so poorly and, frankly, betrayed him to a point that even if forgiveness could happen, romantic love certainly shouldn’t.

And it was more of the same for Kissen. Yes, her natural charisma as a character carried this new relationship further than my total disinterest in Elo’s relationship. But still. This felt like a late-game switch that simply wasn’t necessary and wasn’t set up to succeed. We had two entire books with plenty of other lore and action that needed to be resolved in the rather short page count of this last book. To attempt to wrap all of that up while also adding in two new relationships that only really appear in this last book? Something’s got to give, and it was with these romances.

It’s hard to be objective with this book. Once I saw where things were going with these new romances, I was so frustrated with the trilogy as a whole that I had a hard time focusing in on the rest of what the story was trying to accomplish. There was a solid ending, and one that pulled at the heartstrings in some meaningful ways. But what I loved best about this series were the three main characters. And as the trilogy wore on, it felt like more and more, that’s where the story struggled. Readers who are perhaps less invested in the main trio as a core group may enjoy this more than me. And that said, I do enjoy this author’s style of writing, so I’ll definitely check out what comes next (though, I’ll be honest, if it’s another series, I might wait for it to complete before starting up, so I know what I’m getting into. I really hate having the rug pulled out from under me, and it’s one of the few grievances that I have a hard time forgiving in authors.)

Rating 7: For me, personally, this was probably a 6. But as I know that I got caught up in my feelings, I’d say that on a whole, this one was still a solid conclusion to the trilogy, just not as good as the first book.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Faithbreaker” is on this Goodreads list: 2025 Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Kate’s Review: “This Book Will Bury Me”

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Book: “This Book Will Bury Me” by Ashley Winstead

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, March 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: From the bestselling author of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife and Midnight is the Darkest Hour comes a chilling, compulsive story of five amateur sleuths, whose hunt for an elusive killer catapults them into danger as the world watches.

It’s the most famous crime in modern history. But only she knows the true story.

After the unexpected death of her father, college student Jane Sharp longs for a distraction from her grief. She becomes obsessed with true crime, befriending armchair detectives who teach her how to hunt killers from afar. In this morbid internet underground, Jane finds friendship, purpose, and even glory…

So when news of the shocking deaths of three college girls in Delphine, Idaho takes the world by storm, and sleuths everywhere race to solve the crimes, Jane and her friends are determined to beat them. But the case turns out to be stranger than anyone expected. Details don’t add up, the police are cagey, and there seems to be more media hype and internet theorizing than actual evidence. When Jane and her sleuths take a step closer, they find that every answer only begs more questions. Something’s not adding up, and they begin to suspect their killer may be smarter and more prolific than any they’ve faced before. Placing themselves in the center of the story starts to feel more and more like walking into a trap…

Told one year after the astounding events that concluded the case and left the world reeling, when Jane has finally decided to break her silence about what really happened, she tells the true story of the Delphine Massacres. And what she has to confess will shock even the most seasoned true crime fans…

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for sending me an ARC of this novel!

I really loved Ashley Winstead’s previous novel “Midnight Is The Darkest Hour”, so much so that it made my top ten list the year it was published. I found it to be propulsive and addictive, and when I had the opportunity to read her newest book “This Book Will Bury Me” I knew that I had to take it. I was even more interested when I read the premise, as I thought that it sounded familiar, plot wise. I do enjoy thrillers that take inspiration from real life. But this one made me have to really do some introspection about that.

“This Book Will Bury Me” has a clever story structure, as it is a story within a story that has some unreliable narration and a design like it’s a tell all true crime memoir. We have Jane, a woman who, after being traumatized by her father’s sudden death when she was in her early twenties, latched onto a true crime forum and became an armchair sleuth with four other true crime aficionados. When she and this group break a case wide open, they get a lot of attention upon themselves, and then get pulled into a brutal multiple murder of some college students in Idaho (which is very clearly based on the Moscow Murders – I will talk about that in a bit). We are seeing things through the lens of a disgraced public figure trying to clear her name, which adds a mystery on top of other mysteries, and makes for a gripping narrative as we try to see if Jane and co can solve the mystery, and what happens to make them all so reviled after the fact. I found Jane to be a compelling narrator, because I found her to be incredibly sympathetic as well as incredibly maddening at times. Winstead did her due diligence of drawing out and fully backing up why Jane would have been so drawn into the world of internet crime solving, as she hasn’t had clear answers about the tragedy of her father’s natural, but incredibly traumatizing, death, and needs to find answers to other mysteries to compensate. Sure, I spotted a few twists before they were revealed, but I was having a fun enough time that it didn’t matter.

What also worked for me in this was how Winstead also takes a controversial topic like true crime, specifically internet sleuths and their assistance/meddling (depending on who you talk to) in real life cases with real life victims. Jane and her friends all seem to have the best intentions as they try to solve crimes, but it’s hard to deny that, good intentions or not, they let hubris, ego, and their own biases drive their investigations. It’s not exactly a farfetched problem given that there have been plenty of internet sleuths in real life who have put innocent people on blast and done horrific damage (I’m thinking of the Reddit Boston Marathon Bomber debacle, I’m thinking of that one TikTok woman who named a half assed theoretical suspect in the aforementioned/soon to be mentioned Moscow Murders and sent viral harassment their way ALL BASED ON TAROT READINGS, and more). I appreciated that Winstead didn’t set out to make Jane a nasty person, but a damaged person who makes some pretty big missteps, even if her intentions are pure. But it does raise a lot of questions about the people whose love of true crime goes a few steps further into actually trying to insert themselves into it, blurring the lines between a theoretical fascination and an active participant. I enjoyed that it wasn’t super black and white.

BUT. I will say that I was uncomfortable with how close and obviously ripped from the headlines this plot was to the Moscow Murders in Moscow, Idaho. Ripped from the headlines stories happen quite a bit in pop culture. “Law and Order”‘s entire franchise takes that premise and creates episodes from actual crimes that happen, for example. But I think that part of my issue here was that the initial student murders in this book felt like they were completely lifted from that specific crime, a crime that is still pretty raw and still hasn’t had true resolution or justice because the main suspect hasn’t even gone to trial yet. And I mean LIFTED. Like timelines, details of the house, details of the fallout, it felt like the first group of murdered college students in this book were carbon copies of what happened on King’s Road in 2022. Had there been some changes or tweaks it would have felt a bit better to me. For example, the second mass murder scene felt like it was inspired by Ted Bundy’s sorority house spree, but didn’t feel like I was just reading the spree with new names. On top of that, Bundy happened DECADES ago, and he was tried and convicted and executed, so the victims families had at least some sense of closure. That hasn’t happened for the families of the Moscow victims yet. So as it was it felt kind of ghoulish to me to be so close to the actrual details. Though perhaps there’s an argument to be made that it would still be ghoulish even if it had made the changes and tweaks. I guess it goes back to questions about true crime and exploitation. Which in turn may shadow the intent that I do feel like this book was going for.

SO, it’s a bit messy and complicated. As a thriller that kept me interested, I did enjoy “This Book Will Bury Me”. But, I hope that in the future authors who want to take inspiration from real victims and real crimes can make it feel a little less blatant, because if this one had done that it would have been a slam dunk. As it was, it felt murkier than I would have liked.

Rating 8: A gripping mystery with a dissection of true crime fandom gone too far, “This Book Will Bury Me” is another entertaining read from Ashley Winstead, though I am a little uneasy about how close it was to the inspiration.

Reader’s Advisory:

“This Book Will Bury Me” is included on the Goodreads list “2025 Mystery Thrillers True Crime”.

Serena’s Review: “Exquisite Ruin”

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Book: “Exquisite Ruin” by AdriAnne May

Publishing Info: Gallery Books, March 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description:

Review: Sadaré wakes in a labyrinth, remembering nothing except that she is a powerful sorceress. Her only companion is a hostile immortal named Daesra—beautiful, dangerous, and demonic—who bound his divine soul for power and revenge.

Despite their animosity, the two have no choice but to work together to reach the center and defeat the monster who prevents their escape. But the longer they wander, the more deadly and alive the maze becomes—and the more Sadaré finds herself drawn to Daesra in ways she can’t explain.

As sorceress and demon develop a tenuous truce, the labyrinth gives Sadaré glimpses of their shared history of passion and pain that make her question everything she knows. Unlocking the secrets of her past may be the only way to survive and heal their entwined fates—but as she learns more about the betrayals that brought them to the labyrinth, Sadaré begins to fear that the monster at the center could be Daesra … or even herself.

Review: Regardless of my “hit and miss” track record with the romantasy genre, I was immediately intrigued by this one given its ties to the Minotaur myth. What a unique story! The only other version I know of that tackles this myth was the excellent short story by Naomi Novik in her latest short story collection. Now, that entire collection was probably my favorite short story book ever, so the bar was fairly high. But still, given how rarely this tale has been adapted, I felt confident that there was still a lot of room for exploration, especially with a romance angle added on.

That said, I didn’t pay tons of attention to the summary, and when I opened it up and started reading and realized that it was an amnesia story…I was less than thrilled. Totally subjective take, but amnesia is one of my least favorite tropes. For one thing, I think it’s very rare that an author can properly pull it off, and we saw plenty of examples of this stumbling block here: Sure, Sadare claims to remember nothing, but again and again, she makes assertations about her own history/motivations/preferences that she couldn’t possibly know. It’s hard to truly write a blank slate character, as would be true of an actual amnesiac, and Sadare is definitely not it. Beyond that, I have little tolerance for much of the flip-flopping we got from her, one minute drawn to the MMC and the next fearing and hating him once again, often with little given on the page to motivate a change from one emotion to the other.

The writing was also fairly stilted and it took me a long time to get invested. I think this comes down to an over-reliance on a telling vs. showing style. Sentence after sentence begins with Sadare saying “I…” did something/said something/thought something. As this was an early version, more polishing could be done here before the finished copy comes out, but often those changes are things like missed words or spelling rather than sweeping style changes.

So far this has been rather negative, but I do want to touch on what I did like. Whenever the story was given some breathing room from the romantic tension, I liked the exploration of the original myth and their wanderings through the maze. It could feel a bit repetitive at times with dead end met after dead end. But, on the other hand, this is a story about two individuals trapped in a maze. It should feel hopeless at times!

There were the pieces of a lot of good things here. I think both Sadare and the MCC had good foundations and the world-building was also very interesting. I think this author simply still needs some room to grow as far as the actual quality of the writing itself. With a more solid grip on the basics, this could have been a great read! As it stands, I think it will definitely appeal to the romantasy readers who enjoy monster fics. But if you’re generally a fantasy reader first and foremost, this might not be for you.

Rating 7: A unique romantasy with some creative world-building, but it was held back by an overly “telling” style of writing.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Exquisite Ruin” can be found on this Goodreads list: Greco – Roman Fantasy.